Fortunately with good instinct and advice, success was now hers. The successful restaurant in WeHo was her first step. She had recently opened a Eurasian seafood restaurant, Buzz, on the beach in Malibu.  She secured one on LA’s top fusion chefs for the main menu and a hot young but creative dessert chef to seal the package. Her new restaurant was met with high critical acclaim and a long reservations waiting list. The reviews made it rival any of the top restaurants in the city, perhaps the state and by some estimates even the country. The desert and coffee menu alone was like an encyclopedia. The restaurant was reservation only with a nearly two months wait. It was already frequented by LA’s A-listers and was the talk of the town. The paparazzi camped out across the street to capture their shot of LA’s celebrities as they came and went. Adjacent to the restaurant she had a posh but relaxing desert, wine and coffee bar, called Sweet Palate. This did allow drop ins but if you did not have reservations or were a VIP, on some nights it might be a couple of hours wait. Yes, Helen Peabody was now the toast and talk of the town.

She was extremely proud of this new success but she kept a relatively low profile. Her penniless days were never far from her memory. She remained aloof from the media who wanted desperately to feature her riches-to-rags-to-riches story. This added more to her celebrity and allure. The scars of her past relationship failures left her committed to her life of one or two night stands and absolutely no commitment to anything more than work and family. For the beautiful, sexy alluring Brit with the eyes, body, voice and accent to compliment, melting the thongs off any woman she set her eyes on was like a walk through the park. There was no shortage of beautiful women to choose from to release her sexual tensions. Occasionally, she might meet someone that she briefly thought she might want to get to spend more time with but as she reflected back on all her disappointments and heartbreaks the thick wall and ice around her mind and heart would go up. She would thank them for a lovely evening and night as she politely said goodbye to them in the morning. Perhaps she might call but generally she made no promises nor expected any.